Fighting Fire: A Clato Story
by Marie464
Summary: Why don't we take a trip back to when before the games and Clove and Cato were younger? Follow them through their teenage years, including the hunger games. Why did Cato volunter? Each chapter is in a different point of view. This is a spinoff of Suzane Collins' Hunger Games series. DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY IF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY. (Rated K just for safety)
1. Chapter 1

**Fighting Fire **

The reaping of the 70th Annual Hunger Games! 

Clove

Thunk! My knife hit the wall, right where I amined it, the center of a big and long crack. From somewhere behind me I heard clapping. Amelia rolled her wheelchair out of the door frame. "Great shot," she says as she picks up a knife off the table and throws it, the knife goes right through the handle of mine.

"That was really good," I say turning to look at her.

"Just takes a lot of practice." Amelia respondes "are you ready for the reaping?"

This was my second year, and I felt excited. I had just turned 13 and my name was on 2 of the slips in the girls bowl. Being from District 2, I got to watch kids volunteer almost every year. I knew some of them but others were complete strangers.

"You ready for the reaping?" I ask her.

She shifts in her wheelchair. "Yeah, but I hope I don't get picked," she replies.

"Me too, but I want to go in someday, and hopefully make it out." I say

"I think you would win, unless some other career gets you in your sleep." Amelia tells me, she starts to laugh.

"No one will kill me in my sleep, I can tell you that!" I saying laughing.

Once out laughter dies down she looks at me and says "But I would miss you… I mean if you went and didn't make it out."

"That's good. I would hope you would miss me." I tell her.

"Yeah, I would," she says. There was a long moment of silence, then Amelia spoke again "I once had a dream that I got picked. It wasn't good, I died in the bloodbath. But if I ever got picked would you go in for me?"

I had to think about that one but finally I told her, "no, I would just leave you to the careers."

Amelia sighs in exasperation "I would love to go to the games, but I would not get very far with my legs…"

"You know, I was being sarcastic!" I joked. But as I thought about it, I knew it was true, that Amelia wouldn't survive the first 5 minutes. Amelia has Muscular Dystrophy, which causes her to have loss of muscles in her legs, and she is so weak she can barely walk. But she is the best thrower in district 2. I am not too bad myself, but she still is the best.

As we start to walk to the town square, I started to wonder about who would go into the games this year. Every year a couple of teenagers push and shove to get up on stage. Once a guy wanted to reach the podium first so badly he knocked out another dude. But then there are some years were no one volunteers.

"We should get going." Amelia says looking at the clock on the wall.

"Yeah, let's go," I reply turning around. We head out the door and on our way I ask Amelia "if you went into the games what would you do first?"

She looked at me "I would try and hobble away from the cornucopia." She looked back to see if anyone was behind her "but I wouldn't join the career pack, if I did I would be gone by morning. What about you?"

"Well I would run into the heart of the cornucopia, kill as many tributes as possible, and join the pack." I say as I look at her. She looked back, and we just start laughing. After we recovered ourselves we started to walk up to the peacekeeper that would take our thumbprint. As soon as we get there were surrounded by immature idiots, who have nothing better to do then tease people smaller than them.

"Why bother getting dressed if you can't even walk?" one of the idiots said. He had light brown hair that was combed back.

I turn and see Amelia blush embarrassed, and she turns her head down.

"Okay jerks, I have something to say to all of you!" I yell, "How dare you tease someone who is smaller than you! Also I don't know why you bother getting dressed, because nothing you wear is big enough to cover your stupidity."

After that I turn around and walk away from them pushing Amelia's chair.

"Thanks," Amelia mumbles.

"It was nothing," I whisper back.

**A/N this is my first fanfic, please write and review**


	2. Chapter 2

The reaping of the 70th Annual Hunger Games..!

Cato

I head down the stairs to see my dad and sister eating breakfast at the kitchen table. I'm surprised, dad is never home. He is always working, doing his peacekeeper duties.

"Good morning, you ready for the reaping." Olivia says taking a bite of her corn puffs.

"Ready as I will ever be. I say not telling her about my fear. My older brother, Peyton wants to volunteer, he had talked about volunteering all month. But I'm ready to see what he can do, and hopefully he will make it out.

I make my way over to the table. "Hey dad," I say as I sit down.

"I'm off work today, Peyton says that he is going to volunteer. So I decided to take the day off." My father mumbles as he stands up. He disappears into my parents bedroom.

As I sit down in a chair, Peyton walks into the kitchen. "Ready for the reaping?" He asks half asleep. His dark hair is very messy and he is still in his pajamas.

"I'm going to go wash up," Olivia says standing up a dumping her bowl in the sink. She heads up the stairs to her room.

I pour a bowl of corn puffs and start to eat. There was silence for a while, then Peyton said "Cato, do you think I could survive?" I stop shoving corn puffs into my mouth.

"Yeah, I think you could, you're top of your class." I say. I think he could, he is amazing with a spear. I think about him not making it out, and lose my appetite. I push my bowl over to Peyton, and he starts to eat my corn puffs. "I'm going to go get ready." I say, getting to my feet.

On the way up the stairs I pass Olivia. She is wearing a bright yellow sundress, with pale pink flowers on it. Her light blonde hair was braided into two Dutch braids. She looked so pretty. Even though she is 10, she still has to go and watch the popular event. "You look very nice," I tell her.

"Thank you," she replies "and I'm sure you will look nice when you put on your reaping outfit." I smile and keep walking up the stairs. I reach the room I share with Peyton, and open up the door. I'm almost blown over by a bunch of wind.

"Shit!" I curse, the air pump when berserk. I walk over to the pump and punched it. That didn't do anything but make my hand hurt.

After I get the pump back to normal, I hop in the shower. I rinse my body and hair, then get out. I dry off and put on my reaping clothes; a pair of beige pants, and a nice button down shirt.

Once I was done I headed down the stairs, and found Colton and Peyton chatting. "Hey Colton," I exclaim. Colton has been my best friend since we were like 7.

"Ready, to go," he says as he sees me.

"Yep," I reply "hang on just one moment." I walk over to my parents room "I'm going with Colton," I shout. Then I walk over to Colton.

"We will meet everyone at the candle." He says as we walk out the door. The candle is what we call this giant skinny building. It was only two blocks down.

When we got there my big group of friends we there. We all got together and headed down toward town square. On the way we stopped to tease some girls about their dresses. One was in a wheelchair and her face was matching her red hair. But the other was really short, and had brown hair that surrounded her head. She also had a temper, she got really mad at us so we walked away. For onlookers it must have been hilarious watching a group of guys, yelled at by a girl at least four inches shorter them them. We started to head to the peacekeeper so they would take our thumbprint.

Once we got there, I see almost everybody is in their sections, ready for the reaping. I push in front of my friend Colton. So that I could go first. When the peacekeeper put the needle into my skin I didn't even feel it.

I watch as the mayor and… Cre, you can tell she's from the capital with her bright orange hair, and baby blue dress. If the bright hair and dress didn't convince you, her name is pronounced Cray-a instead of Cr-ey.

I am in my place with the other 14 year old boys trying to get a view, as she walks up to the big bowl of girls names. She calls out the name, Alice Brifht, then a whole group of girls run and shove each other to get on to the podium. Finally a girl with short, dirty blonde hair reaches the podium and says "my name is Daisy Wetester, and I volunteer!" She looked oddly frailer, but I can't place her face to her name.

"Now for the boys!" The orange-haired lady strolled causality to the boy's bowl, like it was no big deal. This was the moment to see if my brother would be in the games with Daisy. "Colton Sandsmith!" She yells. I look to my right and see Colton, he had only a year of training, unlike me, I had trained since I was 5. But Colton, wasn't prepared to go. Two guys headed for the podium, pushing and shoving each other. But I knew my brother was faster than any of them.

Then an action I had been dreading all day happened. My brother sped past the boys and reached the podium first. "I volunteer! My name is Peyton Handley, and I volunteer!" Peyton yells. I could see the relief in Colton's eyes, my brother had saved his life.

Peyton was 18 years old and had attended the career training camp, and this year was going into the games. I looked around and saw no one else looked frazzled, except my mother. My mother was almost in tears and her face was all red. Peyton had always been my mother's favorite, but now he was going to go fight a bunch of other kids, before he could return. My father though looked proud that his son would take part in the hunger games. As I turn back to look at my brother I see Peyton was being shoved into the justice building. I knew it was time to say our 'goodbyes for nows.'

As I walked to justice building, a man with red hair stopped me and whispered "congratulations." How did he know it was my brother? I keep walking and I start to feel a bit of pride that my brother was going into the hunger games. I almost reached the building, when I remembered my sister. It was my job to get her after the reaping, now that Peyton was gone. She must have been with her 4th grade class, they made this day into a field trip. But as looked for her I couldn't find her. Finally I found her teacher, who told me she had gone with my parents.

I started to walk back the justice building when a woman told me that I needed to come with her. She had gray hair and looked about 65, but I have no idea who she is. "Your brother sent me to get you," she told me.

"Okay, can you bring me to him?" I asked the woman

"Yes, if you follow me," she said already walking away. I jogged to catch up with her.

"What is your name?" I asked while we were walking into the justice building.

"Bemona" she replied. We didn't speak after that, we just walked down a bunch of hallways that all looked the same. Finally we reached a door that said BOY TRIBUTE. As I walked in I saw my brother, holding my mother's hand. As soon as he saw me his face grew excited.

"Cato!" He came over to me and gave me a hug, which was weird because he had never gave me hugs. I looked around the room and saw that my whole family was leaving.

"I will be home soon," I told them. As soon as they left my brother looked me up and down.

"You are getting more and more grown up every day." He told me "you are already 14." He looks me in the eye, "if I don't come back you need to watch the family for me-" I cut him off

"No! You will come back!"

"I will try but you need to listen to me, Dad won't be home much with his new promotion, and mom can't handle the house without him. You need to help them through grief so they can be there for Olivia. But most importantly you need to be there for Oliva, while they are working out their feelings. You need to promise me that you will make sure Olivia has a great life, and that if she goes into the games that she is well prepared."

"Okay" I tell him, but he looks like he has more to say.

"If you go into the games just remember that I am with you. But don't forget to tell Olivia." He looks at me as he says the last part.

Peacekeepers come into the room "tell Olivia what?" I ask as peacekeepers drag me out of the room.


	3. Chapter 3

A night later

Clove

As I sit down at the table, where my parents and Mr. and Mrs. Hadley are all sitting at. My mom had thought it would be a great idea to invite the parents of the tributes over for dinner. But unfortunately Mrs. Wetester couldn't make it. "So do you have any other kids, besides Peyton?" My mother asks trying to be polite.

"Yes, actually I have two others, and they will come later, they had to stop some where." Mr. Hadley said looking at me. "is she your only one?" He asked.

"Um… yes" my mother replies, unsure how to answer. My mom had several miscarriages before and after me, so I was an only child. "Would you like some roasted chicken?" My mom asks "or some homemade bread?"

"Sure," says Mr. Hadley filling his plate. He was a burly man with light blonde hair, and his eyes were a dull grey. He had a very broad nose and a set jawline.

While his wife had dark brown hair and blue eyes. She looked like the quiet type, and she did not talk at all yet. Wait she is a victor! I recognize that face. She won the 46th Hunger Games.

But it felt like they looked familiar, in some other way. It was like I could see their faces but also remember something else, what is so framiler about them?

After everyone has something on their plate the small talk starts again. "So…" Mr. Hadley asks me "how is school?"

"Pretty good" I replied, I was a high B student, but I hate math. I know that he is just being nice, but I don't like those kind of personal questions. But I decided to be at least a little polite "what ages are your other kids?" I ask them.

"13 and 9" Mr. Hadley told me. So that means that their middle child was one grade higher than me. Also that I might know him or her.

I look down at my plate, and realize that I haven't even touched my food. I push my chicken around with my fork, mom had tried to make chicken, but it turned out soggy. The bread on the other hand smells quite delicious. I picked up my piece of bread, and held it up to my nose, wanting the smell to go on forever. But alas as I took a bite my mouth was delighted. Just then as I was sitting there with a bite of my bread in my mouth I got an answer to my question.

I see him walk in, the ringleader of the group of guys that tried to tease me and Amelia this morning. And guessing by his facial expression he didn't want to be here at all. But the girl next to him was about 9 and super cute, she was still wearing her reaping clothes. She was wearing a bright yellow sundress, that has pale pink lilys on it. Her hair was done in two Dutch braids. She smiled sweetly and started to walk over to the seat between her mom and me.

Mrs. Hadley didn't seen to even acknowledge them, as they took a seat at the table. When they sat down it was my mom's turn for small talk. "So what are your names?"

"I'm Cato and this is Olivia," said the boy.

"Such pretty names!" Replied to my mom. If she thought those were pretty, why did she have to name me Clove? I mean come on, there are so many other names but really Clove?

"So are you guys hungry?" My mom asked turning to Olivia.

"Yes," Olivia said as she sat down. She grabbed a plate and started to put some food on it. My mom turned to fully look at Cato.

"What about you?" She asked him.

"I'm not very hungry," he said sitting down at the place next to his father.

"Cato, they invited us over for dinner, at least try the food!" says Mr. Hadley.

"Fine." Cato exclaims. He grabs a plate, and takes a tiny bit of food. After that everyone was quiet, and I started to eat the rest of my dinner. Soon the Hadley's have to leave, and once they were gone, my mother looked at me.

"You barely said a couple words to them! Really Clove, we taught you better than that!" My mom yelled at me, she was really angry. "Go to your room!" She finished. As I walked up to my room I couldn't help but wonder who was going to win the 70th hunger games.

**A/N I might take some time to update, I have writer's block and can't get through it. I need help getting to the reaping, write in the reviews or pm me any ideas you have.**

**Thank you Rebecca-in-blue for the conservative criticism, I appreciate it.**


	4. Chapter 4

After the 70th annual hunger games...

Reid Emath

I am Reid Emath, and I am a member of super secret organization located underneath district 8. It is our job and duty to try and save anyone that could be alive after their canon goes off. Normally we save 2 to 3 lucky tributes. But this year I don't think we saved any. I really hope we can do better next year.

I have never actually met Finick Odair, but I have watched his time in the arena. He is the lad who won the games at 14. He is the youngest winner of the Hunger Games! He pretended to be a career, but killed them in their sleep. Then he hunted other tributes down one by one. He fought all those tributes, so he could return to his love. He had so many fans, and people how loved him, but his true love was a girl from his district.

They say that the capital put her in the games this year, because she is the only person he loves. The girl from four, yeah that is Finnick's love. I feel bad for him because his family was killed because of his time in the games, he fought in the arena so he could enjoy his life with his true love. But no! They put her in the games two years later! I hate the capital! They do stuff like this, and then call it an accident. Well he got lucky this year, they flooded the arena. And his girl could swim. But really it was over so fast, we couldn't save anyone. No wait I take that back, I think Jenna got the boy from 9 out, but that was it.

"Hey Jenna," I say as I walk into her office. "How's the boy doing?" I decided to see how Jenna was doing.

"He is doing okay, but definitely will be in recovery for a while." She replies grabbing her notebook, "I'm almost done with some paperwork. But once I'm done do want to head out?"

"Yeah." I tell my wife. "I need to check some footage then sure." I head back to my office, which was only two doors down. But on the way there I run into Mrs. Kentador. She is the CEO of this organization. She is one who tells us what to do.

"I hear your boy died in the carrier." She says spitting in my face. She throws her long blonde hair over her tanned shoulder.

"Yes, unfortunately. I really tried to save him." I reply. She gives me one of her famous death stares that make you want to curl up into a ball and cry. She sighs, but doesn't say anything. Then she just walks away with her high heels making a click, clack sound on the floor.

I stand there for a minute thinking to myself. This year I was in charge of watching District 2. My heart raced as the waves started to come ashore. The girl died right as the first wave came over her head. I couldn't even get the carrier down quick enough. She drowned when the first wave struck.

The boy however was a good swimmer. He managed to outlast the boy from 4! He came so close, but the second isn't good enough for the Capital. I tried so hard to save him, but it was no use died in the carrier. And the girl from 4, I think her name was Annie, she won. She came home to Finnick.

I remember both of their interviews with Panem. The boy told the Capital and all the districts that he wanted to win so he could go back to his family; that touched my heart. But after he said that, they showed a clip of his family at the plaza square watching the interviews. He must have been the oldest because I could see his younger brother and sister. I really hoped that he could go back to them, either winning or being saved. I'm very sorry I couldn't save them.

**A/N Sorry for the short filler chapter. I just wanted to include this for later reasons. But the next chapter will be much better, and I will try to publish it soon. But I'm warning you that school is going to start soon and I might not post a soon as I would like. **

**But please review, they make my day :)**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 That same year training time Cato As I walked into training, I noticed the little brunette pushing a cripped girl, in a wheelchair, into the center through the back double doors. Why are they here it is MY training time! As soon as she sees me her face hardens. She makes her way over to me, making sure to take her sweet time. "What are you doing here, idiot?" She smirks.

"It's my training time, I came here too, I don't know, train!" I shout in her face.

"No it's not go look on the board." She says motioning to the blue board behind her.

"Fine then, I will prove it to you." I replied as I pushed past her and stalked over to the board. Sure enough my name was written there for today.

"See my name is here." I say.

"No, look at the note at the bottom." Clove says reaching the board. I looked at the bottom of the board and saw that there was a note. It said, _today Clove will have the gym instead of Cato. Tomorrow she is unavailable and has asked to use the gym today. We consulted Cato's parents and he is available tomorrow. _

"Clove!" I shout even though she is right next to me.

"What?!" she screams back.

I rip the note off the board. "Really!"

Clove just rocked back on her heels before returning to the crippled girl.

"Ughhhhh!" The words escape my mouth before I can stop them.

"What did you say?" She asks picking up a knife.

My jaw clenches so hard, I actually might break it. "I hope you have fun playing with knives, shorty!"

"Oh I will, but first I'd like to see if you can play with knives,"

"Yes, yes I can."

"Show me,"

I walk over to the area for throwing knives. The knives there are steak and shiny. I grab a throwing knife, off the table, and reach back. I released it, though the knife doesn't go exactly where I want it, but it was close and a good shot.

"Beat that." I laugh.

"I could beat that in my sleep." She taunts.

"Do it then."

She grabs another knife off the table and quickly releases it. Her knife goes inches away from the center. Closer than I was!

"Huh, " she says, seeing my mouth hanging open. "I guess I do have fun playing with knives."

My footsteps echo in the training room as I reach the door. One look back and I see Clove smirking at me which makes me even more angry.

The walk home was even more taunting. Everyone just knew I was having a bad day and wanted to make it worse.

Though when I opened my front door, I was overwhelmed by the sobs. My little sister's hand was clamped around a broken picture frame, which was now wet from her tears.

"Hey, you're alright." I comfort her, wrapping my arms around her slender body.

"She. Through. Out. His. Picture." She says between sobs. My mom has always been one to declutterer, but I haven't seen her like this in over a year.

"I'm sure it was an accident."

"No. It wasn't."

"You don't know that maybe she was mind controlled by mutat flying pigs." I laugh.

"Pigs don't fly." She said, wiping her tears with her hand.

"You never know for sure…"

"Ha, I'm pretty sure." She says, the sadness gone from her voice.

….

"What is this?" I demand, to my mother. "Why did you throw out his picture?"

She draws a shaky breath and says, "for reasons you don't understand."

"Yes, I do. I might be 14 but I know grief."

"No you don't." She slowly lets the words melt from her mouth, as she turns to face the window.

"Well what I do know is that you hurt my sister. She found the picture. And now you just made her think of Peyton again!"

"Calm down, I…." she starts but stops.

"No! I would calm down until you stop throwing away my brother!"

"Honey…." she starts but I walk out of the room and don't hear the rest.

I storm up the stairs, hands balled into fists. Once I reach my room I flop down in my beanbag chair. _Why? Why was she throwing out my brother's picture, when she barely came out of her room. Peyton's death hit her hard and with the victors PTSD, she crumbled._

Suddenly Olivia rushed into the room. "Dad's home!" She yells and quickly darts out of the room. I thought Dad won't be home intel next week. Peacekeepers don't really get early vacations. But I am glad to see him, and because running this house is hard for a 14 year old. Even harder then beating Clove.

**AN: Hope you guys liked this chapter, sorry about the wait. I will try to update sooner. And if there is any spelling or grammar mistakes please tell me about them through PM.**

**Also I've wanted to create an SYOT for while now and finally got the inspiration to do it. It's called Ashes of Snow and Ice. **

**-Bye for now, Marie464**


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